


you're in my heart (and i'm in your mind)

by sunsetozier



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: M/M, actually all of this is really vague, also it's fucking cute, but also not?, it's just vague enough to make u wonder but still clear enough to be satisfying, vague references to a past near death experience
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-08
Updated: 2018-10-08
Packaged: 2019-07-25 12:25:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16197503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunsetozier/pseuds/sunsetozier
Summary: The look that Richie gives him is stifling, and for a moment Eddie forgets that they are quite literally standing in the center of a crowded room, can only see the soft smile and warm eyes on Richie’s face. He can feel his heart thud with a copious amount of love for this man, and besides his own love, he feels Richie’s, too. “I live in your chest, you live in my head,” Richie muses quietly, intimately.-Two months after a near death experience that ended up forming a surprising bond between Eddie and Richie, they attend the Midnight Ball. Together. As dates.





	you're in my heart (and i'm in your mind)

**Author's Note:**

> day eight!! aaaaaa!!!
> 
> big shout out to sara (richietoaster) for beta’ing this!! i luv her sm
> 
> today's prompt is Midnight Ball!! Enjoy!

            Unreal.

            That’s the only word that Eddie can think of to describe the room he’s standing in – the pristine condition, milky colored walls and smooth marble floors, looking like a scene pulled straight out of a movie. Large windows allow natural moonlight to shine through in silver streams, and while there are fancy looking chandeliers hanging from the ceilings, the moon is the only source of light offered. It makes sense, really, because this is the Midnight Ball, which is essentially the adult prom for creatures and beings that were never allowed to go to prom. And the dates of said creatures and beings. Like Eddie.

            _Un-fucking-real._

            He feels completely out of place here, standing at the bottom of the marble staircase and scanning over the crowd, trying to locate a single familiar face. As far as he knows, everyone was planning to come to this, but they had all stupidly decided to meet up here rather than getting together beforehand, so he has absolutely no clue where any of them could be. If he remembers correctly, though, Bev and Ben had plans to get dinner together first, so there’s a good chance they aren’t here yet and won’t be for another half and hour or so. Bill, Mike and Stan had all promised to be on time, though, but Eddie has yet to spot them. As for the last of their little group, well… Eddie’s trying to find him, but he isn’t sure if he really wants to. If he’s being honest with himself, he’s pretty fucking nervous about this.

            But he can’t postpone the night after spending so long getting ready and promising his friends a million times that he wouldn’t bail, so he just lets out a shaky breath, shakes his hands out nervously, and steps further into the room. The place isn’t packed just yet, the ball having only started about twenty minutes ago, but it doesn’t take long before he’s being effectively enveloped into the crowd, the constant sound of chatter and music filling his ears as he continues to glance around. From what he can see, it’s about a fifty-fifty split between humans and non-humans, which helps him relax quite a bit – while he isn’t really afraid of these otherworldly beings (and is, potentially, one of these otherworldly being, but that has yet to be confirmed yet), he definitely isn’t accustomed enough to this world to feel completely comfortable when his friends aren’t with him. Well, his friends, and his… his more-than-friend. His undecided. His… something more. Complicated. Complex.

            Fucking confusing.

            And, of course, the exact moment his _not friend but not yet boyfriend but also a whole fucking lot more than just a boyfriend_ crosses his mind, he feels the heavy warmth of a very familiar gaze settle on him, and he doesn’t even have time to look around and locate the origin of the feeling before a body presses up behind him and murmurs, “You’re here.”

            “Of course I’m here,” Eddie says, not sure what else to say. The crowd isn’t thick enough to shove into them as they stand there, but he does get jostled by a few stray elbows and shoulders of people brushing by, which definitely isn’t very pleasant. After a moment of hesitation, he shuffles away and turns around, meeting those icy blue eyes that had been, and still are, gazing at him. Resisting the urge to nervously bite into his lower lip, he cocks his head to the side and asks, “Why wouldn’t I be here, Rich?”

            “’Cause I’m, and I quote, _fucking confusing._ And you’re really nervous, which usually makes you back out of stuff,” Richie tells him without a moment of hesitation, his lips twitching into a wide, giddy grin. Eddie can feel a fondness that does not belong to him wash over his skin like an ocean wave, making him shiver slightly. Not sounding very apologetic, Richie adds, “Sorry about listening in, by the way. I’m still trying to figure out how to control that.”

            Shaking his head once, Eddie points out, “You know, I can tell that you’re not sorry. Can’t hide that shit from me anymore, Tozier. You hear, I feel, remember?”

            Humming lightly, Richie reaches his hands forward to grasp onto the curve of Eddie’s hips, tugging him in closer, their noses brushing together and sending an electric-like shock down both of their spine. “Couldn’t forget if I wanted to,” he breathes sincerely. “And I don’t want to. Ever.”

            “You’re a sap,” Eddie says. _You’re **my** sap._

            Richie brightens, grinning so wide it looks physically painful. “You’re my _everything.”_

            With a roll of his eyes, Eddie lets out a slow sigh. “Out of my head, Richie. I’m capable of telling you what you need to hear. You don’t need to listen in on my thoughts, especially not right now.”

            “But I love hearing your thoughts,” Richie pouts, nosing affectionately at Eddie’s cheekbone. “It reminds me how connected we are. Your thoughts are the only ones I can hear. It’s… It’s pretty comforting, actually. Like a constant reassurance that you don’t secretly hate me or something, you know? That staying here was a good idea, ‘cause it lead to this. To you, and the others, but mostly you.”

            “It’s impossible to hate you,” Eddie tells him, deciding not to make any jokes out of this situation. There’s a lot they have yet to address about what happened, about what they are, about the metaphorical and literal connection they share, and this feels like a good time to check a few boxes off the long list of things the two of them have yet to discuss. Before that, though, he quietly admits, “But I know what you mean. I don’t really know how to explain it, but feeling what you feel is weirdly addicting. Like… I can just tell, you know? I can tell when you’re happy, or mad, or upset, or in pain, or… anything. And it’s weird, because it’s not like I just know or anything, I actually _feel_ it. In my chest, right where I feel my emotions, I feel yours, too. It’s like a part of you lives in me now. It’s… nice. Weird, really fucking weird, and kind of overwhelming, but… still nice.”

            The look that Richie gives him is stifling, and for a moment Eddie forgets that they are quite literally standing in the center of a crowded room, can only see the soft smile and warm eyes on Richie’s face. He can feel his heart thud with a copious amount of love for this man, and besides his own love, he feels Richie’s, too. “I live in your chest, you live in my head,” Richie muses quietly, intimately. He shakes his head, looking almost in awe, and it’s kind of strange, really – Richie has seen plenty over the course of his existence, much more than what Eddie has experienced the past twenty-five years of his own life, but Richie never fails to look at him like he’s never seen anything better, like no other memory could ever be better than the ones the two of them share.

            Like, despite going through Heaven and Hell and everything in between, Eddie is the only thing that really, truly matters to him, an all-consuming and whole-hearted love.

            “The way you explained that is a lot better than what I could ever say,” Richie goes on, still quiet, like the two of them are in their own little bubble of a world rather than standing in the center of what will likely become the dance floor once people decide to start dancing. “But that’s exactly it for me, too. I have my own thoughts, but I also have yours, right along side my own. And I can only hear full sentences and stuff when I’m closer to you, but even when we’re not together, I hear you. Small things, like you thinking about the weather, shit like that, but it feels like you’re always there even when you’re not. I love that. I love that more than… more than anything.”

            “Does that mean it’s not possible for you to control it?” Eddie asks, not out of concern but general curiosity. Richie had said he can’t control it yet upon approaching Eddie, but perhaps that _yet_ is actually _ever._

            Richie sinks his teeth into his lower lip, brows twitching together. “I don’t know, honestly. I’ve been looking into it with Ben, but we’ve come up empty handed so far. Does it… does that bother you?”

            Faltering momentarily, Eddie considers this, and then decidedly answers, “Stop looking into it. I like knowing that you can hear me, and if hearing my thoughts is anything like me feeling your emotions, then learning to shut it off would just feel more shitty than anything else.”

            “Are you sure?” Richie asks, but he’s already smiling again, eyes glimmering. “You keep telling me to get out of your head, and if it bugs you, then I swear I’ll find a way to—”

            “It doesn’t bug me,” Eddie promises fondly. “But you should already know that, right?”

            Lifting a single shoulder in a half shrug, Richie tells him, “Not really. I can hear your thoughts right now, obviously, but when I’m next to you I kind of tune them out, like background noise. I wanna hear you talk when I’m with you, not hear you think. At least, for the most part. A few things stand out, some thoughts louder than others, and I like to tune back in every now and then.”

            Eddie can’t help but be intrigued by that, seeing as they’ve yet to really discuss the specifics of their connection until now. After what happened a mere two months ago, it’s just kind of been a thing that they’ve been trying to understand themselves, but have yet to properly explain to one another. Curious, he asks, “What kind of thoughts are louder? Is there a trend, or are there just random loud ones?”

            “Both, kind of,” Richie answers, pursing his lips in consideration. “When you think about something you care a lot about, the thoughts get louder. Or, if you’re really focusing on one specific thing, you know? Questions are usually a little bit louder, too, but I’m not sure why. I’m sure I can figure out more specific details after I get more used to hearing how your brain works.”

            Nose crinkling, Eddie lets out a little laugh. “How my brain works? That sounds really weird.”

            “But it’s not wrong,” Richie points out, grinning once again. Eddie wonders how someone who has been through as much as Richie has is capable of always being so bright. “I’m learning how your brain works, and you’re learning how my heart works. Which is kind of weird, because my heart technically doesn’t really work at all, but—”

            “Doesn’t work _yet,”_ Eddie corrects sternly, tapping a finger against Richie’s chest. “I may not really understand what I am yet or why this happened, but my best friends are god damn powerful and we’ve all been looking into how to revive this thing. You’re not gonna outlive any more loved ones, Richie. We’re gonna fix this, like we promised. You have to trust me when I say that.”

            Usually, this is where Richie protests – even before the whole reading minds/feeling emotions thing happened and he was merely the newest member of their friend group, the mysterious immortal with a frozen heart living an endless life, he always argued that their promises couldn’t guarantee anything. Now, however, he must hear the certainty, both in Eddie’s voice and in his head, because all he does is smile wider, wrinkles forming at the corners of his eyes, and nods. “I trust you,” he says. “More than anything and anyone. You know that, don’t you? You can feel that I trust you?”

            And Eddie has to wonder why he had been so nervous to come to the ball, because this? Them?  It’s easy, the two of them being like this. Being… more. Maybe that’s a result of the connection between them now, but maybe it’s because there had been something festering beneath the surface since they first met. Subtle glances and touches that neither of them brought up, that no one addressed until the day that… the day that everything happened. The day that Eddie almost died.

            Apparently hearing the trail of thoughts Eddie’s going down, Richie suddenly lifts a hand, brushes his fingertips carefully, tenderly on the side of Eddie’s cheek, and Eddie can feel the guilt and sadness festering in Richie’s chest echoing in his own heartbeat. “I wish I could have kept you safe,” he murmurs, sounding ashamed. “If I had known… if I got there sooner, I—”

            “If things had gone any differently, this might not have happened,” Eddie interrupts, shaking his head with a slight frown. “I mean, it sucked, and it hurt like a bitch, but I’m glad it happened, Richie.” Leaning into Richie’s touch subconsciously, he adds, “Besides, you showed up, didn’t you? Whatever it is that sparked… whatever _this_ is, it made it so you could save me. You can’t blame yourself.”

            “I think you sparked it,” Richie tells him. Eddie can still feel that ache of Richie’s guilt heavy and hot behind his rib cage, but it seems that Richie doesn’t want to dwell on that, as his features take on a something thoughtful expression. Though he knows he can’t let the subject drop forever, he decides to let it go for the time being, instead listening intently as Richie explains, “I think… I mean, we’ve all established that you’re not completely human, right? You have to have a little bit of magic in there somewhere, and I think, because you were so close to dying, that magic manifested itself and created this bond between us so that I could hear the fact that you needed help. It was a supernatural act for survival, but it was more, too, because I don’t think you could have made this same connection between you and anyone else. I think it had to be me, if that makes sense. Or… or maybe I just want to think it couldn’t have been anyone else because I don’t like the idea of somebody other than me being in my shoes.”

            Eddie considers teasing Richie for that, but then he really processes what Richie had said and can’t find it within himself to make any sort of joke. “You think it could have been me?” he asks, brows rising. “Is that… is that really possible? If I have magic, I don’t think it’d be strong enough for that.”

            Humming, Richie taps his fingertip against Eddie’s temple gently and says, “Maybe, but that’s part of why I think it could only be formed with me, because I have so much dormant magic within me and you connected with that to get enough strength to do it.”

            That… kind of makes sense, in a completely outlandish, confusing kind of way. “You’ve been thinking about this a lot, haven’t you?”

            “And theorizing with Mike,” Richie nods. “We both think the same thing, but we aren’t saying anything for sure until we look into it some more and figure out what level of magic you have. I probably wasn’t even supposed to tell you until after doing some more research, but… whatever. I refuse to keep secrets from you, or even just postpone telling you things. I’m pretty sure you’d be able to tell if I’m lying anyway, but I also just don’t like lying to the people I love.”

            Eddie, despite being well aware of how deep their feelings for each other run, can feel his heart skip a beat inside his chest as he grins a wide, toothy grin. Before he can respond, though, he feels a hand clap down on his shoulder, followed by Beverly’s voice in his ear saying, “You decided not to back out.”

            Rolling his eyes, Eddie reluctantly tears his gaze away from Richie and grins at her. “Looks like it, doesn’t it? Unless, of course, I decide to leave now.”

            “Glad you’re here, Eddie,” Beverly snickers, watching in amusement as Richie begins to nose at the juncture of Eddie’s jaw, clearly trying to draw Eddie’s attention back to him. “Ben and I got us a table in the corner, by the way. I haven’t seen the others yet, but if you see them, can you let them know? It’s table number fifteen, back left corner. I also already ordered some drinks and food, if you guys get hungry any time soon.” Eyeing Richie’s actions pointedly, she adds, “For something other than each other, I mean. Try not to get kicked out for PDA, alright?”

            “We’re all adults here,” Eddie dismisses, unbothered. He can’t help but chuckle when he feels a combination of Richie muffling a giggle against his skin and Richie’s delight in his chest. Beverly only looks more amused by this. “We’ll be fine.”

            “I’m sure,” Beverly grins. “Just come sit with us before the dancing actually starts. This might be a ball, but trust me, it can end up like a rave if the right song comes on, so you’re gonna want to load up on some food for energy later on.”

            With that, she vanishes, making her way towards the back left corner of the room. Distantly, he can see Ben grin at her as she reaches him, and he decides that they should probably take up that offer, seeing as he’s already hungry and the night has barely begun. Without even having to speak up, Richie detaches himself from Eddie’s side in order to take his hand and start leading the way through the crowd, casting Eddie a bright smile and happily exclaiming, “Let’s fuel up, Eds!”

            _God, I love you,_ Eddie thinks.

            “Stop thinking so loud,” Richie says, giggling a cheery little giggle. “But I love you, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> me: i wanna make this into a full au  
> also me: i have....too many wip's to take that one right now  
> me @ me: but u can totally handle one more right?  
> no i cannot but god i want to,,,, oof
> 
> let me know what you think!!
> 
> tomorrow's prompt is Chilly Weather, Bloody Sweater, and it's rated mature :)


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